10-10-2020
Celebration and Location
Hello my friends,
First of all, I hope that you and your loved ones are safe and well.
Today is a special day. I realised yesterday that I have two reasons for saying that today is special.
First, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded yesterday to the United Nations World Food Programme. And the celebration continues today. As a long-time supporter of WFP, I want to share some WFP stories with you.
Second, when I see a date pattern like 10-10-2020, I like to share the memories and the possibilities that such a pattern brings up. That makes it an Arithmodigmaphilia message day.
For those of you who are new to that word, here’s the brief story:
When the new century began on 01-01-01, I loved that pattern of numbers—so I invented the word arithmodigmaphilia, meaningnumber pattern love to describe that unique date. That led to people asking for the 02-02-02 message. When we ran out of that sequence on 12-12-12, I began looking for other number
patterns, such as my most recent message on 02-02-20. To read that first message and some of the following ones, follow this link:http://www.walthopkins.com/en/ writings/arithmodigmaphilia/01- 01-01/
I’d already been thinking of sending a message on the 20th of October. That’s because one way of writing that date is 10-20. And when I say that aloud, it takes me back to the sixties when I learned the Ten Code.
In the summer of 1963 I worked at a trail camp 9000 feet up in the Sangre de Cristo mountains in New Mexico in the USA.
Part of my job was to crank up the army surplus generator so that we could check in with ranch headquarters twenty miles away.
Because radio reception was not always clear, we used the Ten Code. This kind of code was originally developed in 1937 by Charles Hopper of the Illinois State Police. For some fascinating background, follow this link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten- code#cite_ref-Qcode_10code_43- 0
The idea is simple. Say “ten” with a number following it and the other person can easily recognise your message. And when they do understand you, they will respond with 10-4, which means OK orAffirmative.
Some of the ten codes have different meanings in different systems. The 10-10 code has four different meanings. But each one applies to the virus situation that we are all living in:
Out of service—subject to call; On minor detail, subject to call; Fight in progress;
Negative.
Working backwards through that list, the global pandemic is definitely Negative and the fight against it is definitely a Fight in progress. At first, it did seem we were On minor detail, subject to call as we would soon be through lockdown and back to normal. Now we are realising that we may be Out of service—subject to callfor a very long time until—or if— we are called back to normal.
(It is now 10:10 on 10-10-2020 so I need to write more quickly!)
The 10-20 code means Locationor Where are you? That’s why I was going to send this message on October 20, so I could ask you—and ask myself—that question: Where are you?
Geographically, the 2300 people receiving this message live in many different parts of the world.
We also live in different ways of feeling about this world. So there are other answers to the questionWhere are you?
I might answer with words such as: worried, hopeful, despairing, inspired, or other descriptions of my location in the world of today. How would you answer? Where are you?
How we answer that Locationquestion makes a difference. It makes a difference how I feel and what I do. It makes a difference how you feel and what you do. It makes a difference how we all feel and what we all do.